Regional development co‐operation in the SATBVC context and the Ciskei tax reform issue

Abstract

Despite interpretations of perceived agglomeration diseconomies in metropolitan areas, South African regional development policy remains firmly based on the pursuit of a political ideology in the form of separate development.

Initial attempts at decentralisation through incentives and concessions failed to achieve any significant restructuring of the South African space economy and led to a “new” regional development strategy for Southern Africa contained in the Good Hope Plan.

This has created a necessity for a complex and integrated system of “multilateral co‐operation” designed to establish consensus amongst the SATBVC states. Fundamental to such co‐operation are the principles of participant autonomy, co‐operative rather than prescriptive action, promotion of private initiative and a rationalisation of industrial development by eliminating competing structures.

The implementation of Ciskeian tax reform initiatives tends to indicate shortcomings in the multilateral co‐operation forum, and to raise questions regarding further unilateral actions by TBVC participants. The implications of Ciskei's actions for development in Region D also appear to be serious and require urgent attention.

The success of the regional development policy is heavily dependent upon interregional co‐operation and Ciskei's actions have served to highlight the possibility of failure inherent in a policy whose foundations are associated with the spatial manifestation of separate development.

Notes

Stella and Paul Loewenstein Professor of Development Studies at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.